


Balancing Act

by somedaynew



Category: Pinto - Fandom, Wordplay as Foreplay - Fandom
Genre: AU, Angst, Chris - Freeform, Football, High School, High School AU, M/M, Theater - Freeform, zach - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-21
Updated: 2013-10-21
Packaged: 2017-12-30 01:05:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1012187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somedaynew/pseuds/somedaynew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris is a star athlete and Zach is the acting extraordinaire of the local high school. Chris is persuaded to try out for the school play and seeks Zach’s guidance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

He can hear his laugh from a mile away and with the laugh come those delectable memories of gleaming eyes and a broad smile. His head would be thrown back just slightly, exposing his long neck and sharp jaw. The blue of his eyes would catch the light ever so perfectly and seem to carry the magnificence of an ocean within them.   
_Perfection._

That was Chris for you.

Zach smiled as he came around the corner with his friends in tow. Chris always seemed to be in the company of at least three other guys. At times that could either serve as relieving cover or pure torture. Often times, Zach would side with the former due to the belief that he could brush off a stare as “just zoning off and they were there.” They were a group, after all. It would be hard to prove that Zach was looking at one of them in particular. But there were times when Zach just pleaded that Chris could be alone _just once_. If Zach could just get one opportunity…

But you know high school: angst, hormones, testosterone, estrogen and the like. Zach was often chastised by his other classmates from theatre classes. They all knew about his crush without him ever having to say a word and teased him relentlessly for it. That was the thing about theatre kids, though. They knew how to keep a secret and pass it off as if they knew nothing when needed be. If he could trust anyone it would be his gossipy peers.

At long last he tore his eyes from the rowdy group of football players and turned to bow his head, tracing swirling patterns into the wooden lunch table. He gripped the back of his neck with his left hand and scratched absent mindedly at his hairline. From across the table he heard one of the girls whispering hurriedly. Zach looked up to see Mel and Sarah poised awkwardly and looking rather red.

“What? Is there something on my face,” he joked.

Mel giggled shook her head and replied with “No, it’s just-Well, I found something out this morning and told Sarah after and I was just asking her if maybe she thought we should let you in on it because you’ll find out anyway-you know?-but being the ones to break the news and getting to-“

“Mel, the point,” Sarah said, gripping Mel’s exaggeratedly waving wrist.

“Right.” She paused and took a breath in as if to collect herself. “So, today I was talking to Ms. Perry about auditions for the play and who had turned in sheets pre-audition to get a guaranteed early slot.”

“Yeah, so? Her theatre students always get first priority and everyone knows we’re the only ones that even bother to try out for anything,” Zach replied, trying to seem uninterested despite his growing eagerness to hear what was going on. Someone just had to have turned in a slip or _something_ like that.

“Well, she said she got a slip!”

“Okay?” he said in a way that really meant _get on with it. You’re making me anxious._

“Any guesses who it is, Zach?”

She smiled slyly as well as excitedly and darted her eyes across the lunch room. She raised her eyebrows suggestively and looked towards the group of football players, now shoving each other about. Zach’s jaw dropped as he once again met Mel’s eyes. She nodded ever so subtly.

“No!” he whispered loudly in disbelief.

“YES!” she trilled and smacked her hands palms down to the surface of the table, making a loud smacking noise.

At this point the rest of the table was composed of grinning spectators. They had all tried desperately to push Zach in the direction of the relationship and all such attempts had failed. Zach had a creeping position that this was all an elaborate set up orchestrated in some way by each of them.

He gripped Mel’s hand in his own and leaned across the circular table to whisper somewhat-but not truthfully-discreetly. Her smile had blossomed and her cheeks were flushed red with excitement.

“Mel, what do you mean he signed up? He doesn’t do that kind of stuff! He’s into football and cars and sweat and all that stuff “manly” guys do. Why would he sign up for the fall play? Would he even have time?”

“Well, Krista has him in English and _she_ told Adam that she saw that he started reading a whole bunch of classic plays in class. Then Adam told Jenna and Kyle that he noticed Chris, like, taking the plays and reading passages and then whispering the lines under his breath. But then Kyle talked to him in gym class and Chris let it slip that even though he really liked football he just wasn’t sure that was what he wanted to go to college for.

“Yeah,” Kyle said, jumping in. “Apparently Chris has been having some muscle issues and he had a concussion or something this summer during practice which still gives him these bad headaches all the time. So he told me that he’s really reconsidering whether or not he wants to make a future out of something that has given him prolonged injuries.”

“Anyway,” Mel sneered teasingly. “So then Lindy and Anna have him in their Geometry class and they started talking about the fall play whenever they could and made sure that Chris was listening. I guess Chris started asking all these questions about it and even talked to them a little when he thought no one else was paying attention. Then the rest just sort of fell together!”

Zach’s jaw had once again dropped and he looked around to see all the proud smiles displayed on his friend’s faces. They all looked very pleased with themselves to say the least. He ran his hands through his hair and chanced another look over to Chris.

“So you mean…?”

“Yeah,” Sarah giddily replied and nodded. “Ms. Perry even said that he looks like a good fit for _the lead._ The lead, Zach! Wouldn’t it be exciting to get another regular?”

“But-Wait! Let me see the script!”

Krista fished the script from the front pocket of her bag and slid it across the table to him. Zach flipped through the front few pages hurriedly, almost frantically, until he got to the main summary and character descriptions. His eyes widened as they left the text.

“You guys didn’t.”

“We did!” Mel cried.

“You-you took the only play we’ve _ever_ done with a same sex relationship and went and got _Chris_ to audition? As in Chris Pine? And you want him to audition for the lead? Who, might I ask, are you suggesting for the supporting lead?”

“Come on,” Adam joked. “I thought Mr. Q was a little smarter than that.”

“Oh my god. You are all the most awful human beings I have ever encountered. I swear you’re all going to freak him out with this grandma level match making and make him think I’ve got some kind of undying love and a secret shine in my closet and-Oh my god this was a terrible idea.”

“It’s not likely that any of that last part wasn’t true, though,” Lindy commented as she dobbed her lips with more of that god awful, sparkling, pink lip gloss.

Zach flushed red and pressed his head to the table, folding his arms over his head in embarrassment. Someone leaned over and began to pat his shoulder mockingly. He could hear the giggles get louder as the situation progressed. At this point he wasn’t even sure if it was just another act or if he was truly just so embarrassed he couldn’t show his face.

God, this was an awful plan. What made them think that shoving them into portraying characters that fell in love would make them fall in love? Zach had survived all these years with Chris barely knowing who he was. He was pretty sure he was fine with keeping it that way. Well, maybe that was just what he told himself.

The truth was Zach was no better than a nervous, little school girl. He wasn’t about to say anything to Chris but he sure was going to hope Chris said something to him. It was stupid really but he was more content with Chris not knowing who he was than having Chris label Zach as an obsessed, gay freak. Given the option Zach would always take the former. Always.

  Before he could give it any more thought the lunch bell rang. He lifted his leather bag and progressed towards his locker, leaving his friends behind who still so happened to be in the midst of a giggle fit. Upon arrival it hit him that his next class would be current events. _Wasn’t that just fantastic?_ He hissed mentally as he plucked his report book from the top shelf and stalked to the class.

He slipped into his desk quietly and discreetly, trying not to draw any attention to how clearly flustered he was. Zach attempted to fish out his news story and write out the discussion topic in his report book without making eye contact with anyone that entered. Keeping busy with work was Zach’s easiest route of avoidance.

However, that stone wall of concentration was quickly demolished with the two simple words “Hey, Zach.”

He tried to control his blushing and mask it with a false surprise. Of course Chris would choose today to chat. But then again, Chris only ever bothered to say hi before if he had forgotten a news story. Today it sounded sincere and genuine. Zach was anxious to know if it was because Chris had overheard the lunch time topic of the day or if he was just trying to be friendly.

“Uh, yeah, hey,” he replied in quite a fumbled way.

Chris laughed, almost nervously, Zach noticed, and scratched at the back of his neck before saying “I,uh-I was just wondering if you had…No, forget it. It was a stupid question.”

Chris turned forward in his seat abruptly and scribbled out the discussion topic in his report book. Zach noticed an article peeking out detailing what a _breakthrough_ it was that North River had given the approval to put on a show featuring a same sex relationship. He smiled faintly to himself and twirled patterns into his notebook paper like he always did when he was thinking of Chris.

Zach then endured an arduously long class period of Current events. The class itself was enjoyable. Zach loved to have a better understanding of what was going on in the world and he liked to know how that affected him personally. Mr. Kelly was great at engaging everyone in his discussions making it interesting when it all seemed to be gloom and doom.

One of the worst parts would be when he would snatch your article and then smother you in questions about it. Zach always read and researched his articles but there were times when Mr. Kelly just knew what it was you didn’t. He would often use that to disorient you and transition into an entirely new discussion.

He swept through the rows, scanning for a new literary victim.

When he spotted the headline of Chris’s he snatched it from where it was tucked in his report book and shouted, with all too much gusto, “AHA! Chris! What have we here?”

“It’s a story from the paper about the upcoming fall play,” he grumbled almost inaudibly.

“Well, it would seem so! So tell me! Why is it newsworthy? Why do I care, Mr. Pine?”

“Because they’ve got a couple ’a gay boys in there and I guess that’s never been done before or something like that.”

“Lovely wording,” he taunted and suddenly turned to Zach. “YOU! I’m assuming you’ll be trying out for one of the leads? You always seem so proud of this school’s shows!”

“I-Yes, sir. I think I’ll try out for the supporting lead,” Zach answered tentatively.

“And why not the lead? You seem to be the right man for the job, Zach!”

“I’ve been told that trying out for the lead role would support my current interests. It’s really ridiculous, actually, but I’ll go along with it if I have to.”

“What would your current interests be?”

Zach flushed red and broke eye contact, which he usually didn’t do. “Its-it’s really a long story actually and I’d hate to soak up class time.”

“RIGHT!” Mr. Kelly exclaimed. “Moving on.”

Zach slumped as if to make himself smaller, nearly invisible. He began to root through his bag as if it were some sort of invisibility cloak that would aid in the process. As he began piling things back into the bag he noticed a neatly folded sheet of blue paper resting on his report book. He glanced over at Chris who seemed quite nonchalant and zoned out. Zach refocused to his bag.

In the awkward waiting period between the end of the lesson plan and the sound of the bell Chris had gotten up to situate himself next to the door. Zach glanced over at him every so often just to see what the note might say. He felt it would have been odd to open it where someone could have potentially looked over his shoulder or while Chris was sitting right there. But then again he thought back to the torture that was waiting for someone to finally open a present you had given them.

He decided to unfold the note.

It was very intricately and delicately folded. Zach made sure not to tear the thin paper as he did. Once it was all flattened out he examined the contents of the note. Chris’s handwriting was round and graceful. It put a bit of a flutter in Zach’s heart as he read it.

-Zach

If you would come by the art hall bathroom at the next transition

period that would be great. Thanks in advance!

-Chris

The bell rang as he folded the note back in a sloppy but gentle way. He looked up to see that Chris had already disappeared and a majority of his peers were slowly feeding into the halls. He gathered his things and pushed through into the hall.

Zach pushed through the crowds of people and towards the back hall containing the art classes and their respective restroom. Few people knew about or regarded the art hall bathrooms seeing as how they were nestled in the back of a short and dimly lit sub-hallway. That was probably the reason for Chris scheduling a rendezvous there. None of his friends would show up and question why he was hanging out with Zachary Quinto, the resident faggot. Zach, on the other hand, would be forced to take that position.

When he walked in he noticed Chris peering in the mirror and probing at invisible blemishes on his face. Zach averted his eyes to keep from staring and took a few loud steps to let Chris know he had showed up.

“Oh, Zach! Oh man, I’m so glad you got my note. I was a little worried for a second, there.”  He sounded truly pleased that Zach had bothered to show up and smiled brightly in his direction.

Zack smiled back. God, Chris had a beautiful smile. Zach especially enjoyed that he was the cause of this particular smile and wondered if he’d ever get the opportunity again.

“Yeah, of course.” He could feel himself blushing and shook his head as if he could just shake it off. He smiled at his feet to avoid another on rush of giddiness. “What’s going on? Is it-Is it about that question earlier?”

“Yeah,” Chris sighed and hopped a bit to sit on the counter. Zach looked up to see a look of slight discomfort and unease brought on by his questions. “You said you were going to do that play, right? Well…I was sort of thinking about auditioning for the lead. Your friend Anna told me I should and then you said you were trying out for the supporting lead so I was thinking of trying out. ”

“Really?” Zach replied, trying to sound genuinely surprised.

“Yeah, but the thing is that since the leads rely heavily on one another I have to have an audition partner and…Well, what I’m getting at is: Would you maybe be my audition partner so I could at least try? I mean, I’ve been trying to get into other things lately and this just seems like a really cool idea. You know? But, like, I can’t do it on my own and I don’t really know anyone else and I just thought that maybe…”

“You want to audition with me?”

“Well, only if you want to. I mean, we don’t even really know each other outside of current events but it would be cool if we could audition together. I probably won’t even get a part but it’s a worth a shot, right? Whatever, it’s stupid.”

Chris jumped off the counter and began to trudge towards the door. His head seemed to be hung in shame and his expression carried a sorrow only achievable through rejection and lost hope. Zach gazed for a moment, soaking it in but then he snapped out of it.

Before he even knew what he was doing he reached out and gripped both of Chris’s arms, surprising them both. He pushed him away from the door a little, as well and then took a moment to look at Chris and take him in up close for the first time.

“Chris, no,” Zach said softly, gazing into his rich, blue eyes. “That’s not what I meant. What I meant was-Well, I meant I’d really like auditioning with you and I’m sure you’ll get a role. Anyone can put emotion into a character. You don’t need to be a geek like me and be a Junior with five years of class experience to do it.”

Chris stares wide eyed for a moment. There’s a look in his eye that seems almost like disbelief. The gaze between them hangs for a moment before Chris wipes a hand down his face, springing back with a look of elation. He removes his arms from Zach’s still steady grasp and moves in for quite an enormous hug.

“Seriously? Thanks man. I really appreciate it. A ton. You don’t even know.”

“It’s no issue, really.”

Zach is fully encompassed by Chris at that moment. His arms are wrapped around his shoulders firmly and the two are pressed together. Zach lets his mind wander for just a moment about how long he’s wanted something as simple as this, how he wants to wrap his arms around Chris’s waist, how he wants to press him to the wall and kiss his lips but he snaps out of it as Chris starts to draw away and he instead gives him a rough slap on the back. That was the way he’d seen the players at the football games do it.

Chris seemed to be blushing, just a little, as he turned to head out the door. A gleam of excitement and happiness was back in his eye.

“Do you still live in the same house?” he asked.

“Yeah, same as always. Block and a half from the elementary school,” Zach said softly.

“Oh, well your friend Lindy told me you had the script and I was just wondering if maybe I could come over and we could practice later tonight. I mean, if you were willing to it would be great if you could tell what would make a better audition because I’ve, uh, never done that kinda thing before so-”

The final bell cut Chris short, marking them both late for their next classes. Chris looked at the speaker and then to Zach with concern as if he was worried about Zach being late more than himself. His eyes then darted to the door and back to Zach.

“Oh man, I didn’t mean to make you late,” he sputtered.

“No, it’s okay,” Zach replied. “If you want to you can come over sometime after school. I don’t really have any plans today.”

Chris smiled. “Thanks, I’ll see you then.”

He pushed past Zach with an eager grin and strode into the hall. Zach waited a moment and considered whether or not he should go to his next class or not. He had had theatre right before lunch and it had been stage fighting. It had been a rigorous day of fake lunges and somersaults and Zach still hadn’t had a chance to wash up and reapply some deodorant. It had been embarrassing enough sitting next to him in current events and then being that close to him just a few moments ago.

He decided to go home and clean up a little.

Fortunately both of Zach’s parents worked during the day so he was at little risk of being caught ditching. However, he did feel a little guilty calling into the office claiming to be his own father and saying he had a dentist appointment. Whatever, pottery class didn’t matter enough to be that concerned about it.

                Zach made sure to tidy up both himself and the house. He put out a bag of chips and some sliced up fruits and vegetables after grooming his hair back into its usual slicked back shape. For a time he debated putting on something a tad more formal but eventually decided on something a little more casual. With Mel’s over-the-phone advice, who so happened not to have a fourth hour class, he decided on a t shirt from last year’s show with a light cardigan and some blue jeans. Zach smiled at himself in the mirror.

                He slipped into the backyard and sat on the ancient swing set, thinking about things long past. From here, he could still see where he and Chris had taken the paint buckets out of the garage and covered a portion of the fence in it. They had been five or six and clever enough to find the paint and stupid enough to use it. It was faded now. You could hardly tell it was there.

The two of them had actually been inseparable friends through second grade. Chris and Zach had grown up as next door neighbors. They usually hung out at Chris’s house in the summer because his mom let him have an inflatable pool and he had a trampoline. When it got colder they went to Zach’s house because he had better blankets for blanket forts and a bigger TV for watching Disney movies from inside. It was what kids did.

But then Chris had moved across town. Zach’s mom had told him a few years ago that Chris’s dad was uncomfortable with the closeness of the relationship and upset that Chris never wanted to join sports because Zach hadn’t either. So their friendship had been cut to seeing one another twice a week for play dates and then once a week and then once a month and then almost never at all. They were as good as strangers by the end of third grade.

It wasn’t some kind of scarring incident in Zach’s life. He had been a kid and although he missed Chris he moved on. He found other kids to be friends with. Then they got to high school and saw each other for the first time in years but they were completely different people with completely different interests now. They weren’t the foolish kids who drew on fences or made blanket forts anymore. Zach had found his niche and Chris had found his.

In fact, Zach had all but forgotten about Chris when he reentered stage left. But that was quickly refreshed when he saw him again. How had Chris gotten so pretty in all these years? Where were his chubby cheeks and scuffed knees? How had Zach never noticed how blue his eyes were? Needless to say, Zach was in love with an entirely new Chris.

When he heard the bell he picked himself up from the swing and loped to the door. He tried desperately to appear more cool and casual than gleeful and jittery. Zach looked behind him to make sure everything was set out neatly before opening the door with a subdued flourish. Chris smiled nervously on the porch with his hands tucked into his pocket. He brightened as the door opened and he stepped inside.

“Wow, you, uh, got here fast. What time is it anyway,” Zach asked as he turned around to see that it was only four minutes after school had ended. “Don’t you usually have football practice after school?”

Chris glanced down ashamedly and bit his lip.

“I sort of skipped out today. I just have been real interested lately and the coach has been sitting me out a lot anyway. I’d rather do this anyway,” he beamed.

“Yeah?” Chris said, biting himself for the stupidity of the reply.

“Yeah, football just isn’t really my thing. You got the script right?”

Chris sauntered over to the living room and sat himself on a couch as if he’d done it after school every day his whole life. Zach followed, sitting on the opposite chair and pushed the script across the glass coffee table towards him. Chris snatched it and flipped through the pages, stopping every so often to scan the text. Zach watched his eyes dart across the page in concentration and his lips forming murmured words.

“Well, Lindy and Anna were right,” he stated.

“About what,” Zach questioned, genuinely confused.

“It’s a good play and I really do like the main character. They told me that they thought I fit his physical description and I guess I sort of do.” He smiled and looked at Zach. “Do you think I have a chance, at all?”

Zach was speechless for a second. Of course he thought Chris had a chance. But then again they had just started talking again. He didn’t want to seem too impressed by Chris.

“Well, I-yeah, sure! I think you might have a shot,” he tried, sort of blending nonchalance and optimistic reassurance. “It’ll take work but you have a really strong chance.”

“Really?” he asked, happy and incredulous. “Because is the first thing I’ve looked forward to this much in a really long time. Like, I don’t know why I didn’t take theatre. I wanted to but my dad told me that it was a bad idea and it I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as football.”

He spoke fast and excited. So much so that Zach almost couldn’t make out what it was he was saying.

“Chris,” he interjected softly. “You mean you actually wanted to take theatre?”

Chris stopped his fast paced speech and took on a look of morose. It was as if something he’d covered up had suddenly resurfaced. He looked down for a long while and then made eye contact with Zach again.

“Well…yeah. I wanted to take it in middle school but my dad and I got into a big argument and I ended up taking wood shop and doing football instead. He told me he didn’t want me labeled as a _sissy boy_ ,” he said, spitting the last two words. “I liked football and I still do, honestly, but it wasn’t really my choice. My dad wanted me to start middle school with a good impression. Then I got up to high school and I saw that you had taken theatre.”

He looked up and saw the shock on Zach’s face. This was the first year they had had a class together. Zach had no idea Chris even noticed they went to the same school before that. Chris grinned a little and continued speaking as he read through the beginning of the script.

“Yeah, I remembered you. Did you think I’d just forget? Your mom almost whooped my ass when she saw that fence. How could I forget that?”

Zach smiled. “I guess you always seemed a little too preoccupied with football and all of your friends. I just thought you hadn’t noticed.”

“Of course I noticed! You were my best friend as a kid! But yeah, I tried to sign up again but my dad’s friends with the 9th grade principal. He had the guy check and reschedule me for a year of auto body. I was upset but I guess it wasn’t _that_ big of a deal. He was just looking out for me.”

“Chris-”

“Seriously, I understand why he did it. He was in football in high school and he wants me to continue the legacy. Theatre would just distract from that.”

“So why are you completely ignoring football now,” Zach inquired.

“I’ve been banged up a ton the past year. My Achilles tendon is on the verge of snapping and I get these terrible headaches all the time from a concussion I got from summer practice. My doctor said that they should have stopped happening in roughly a month but that it could keep up for a year or longer. They get really bad and I have to take medication sometimes, even. My dad’s lightened up because of that and he’s letting me slack off a little. I think the coach has talked himself out of getting his ass chewed by my dad for sitting me out.”

“Oh…”

“Whatever, it doesn’t even matter. What’ll I have to do at the audition to make it? Isn’t there a bunch of technical stuff involved?”

“Well,” Zach hesitated uncomfortably. “Not really. You just have to go up there and do a “cold reading” of a passage from the piece. People auditioning _shouldn’t_ have seen the script before that but there are so few people who audition for the leads so she just gives her advanced students the scripts as soon as she gets them. Usually you have to do auditions alone but Mrs. Perry wants to make sure the leads can have chemistry with other actors so she’s doing duo auditions for the leads. I guess you know that already, though.”

“Do you know which parts she’ll call?”

“Nah, that’s the one thing Mrs. Perry keeps from us. She wants to keep a little bit of the surprise factor,” Zach commented, smiling. “But I’ve got a pretty good idea. She usually likes to do the first lines, the serious or funny scenes and for this one she’ll want to do the dramatic conflict scenes. She’s sort of predictable that way.”

“Alright,” he said, grinning. “Which scenes are those?”

“Here, let me-” Zach said, leaning across the coffee table to grab the script.

Chris leaned forward as well. The two met in the middle with Zach’s hand pressed against Chris’s chest and their faces inches from one another. Zach gulped as their eyes fixated on one another’s and Chris smirked. He reached up and gently wrapped his hand around Zach’s wrist, pulling it away gently and fitting the script into his hand with the other. Zach grabbed the script and turned away, his cheeks aflame with a rosy blush.

“You sure are getting into character there, Zach. If you keep it up _you_ might end up with the lead.”

Zach glared half heartedly and searched for the passage Mel had advised him to do with Chris. The way she giggled over the phone, Zach just knew it was going to be one of the more intimate scenes that involved a lot of physical contact. There were times when he couldn’t believe he’d picked Mel as one of his best friends.

He skimmed the part Mel had picked out. He had been right. It was a scene where the two main characters were sitting on a bench, holding hands and talking about their futures. It was sweet really but with Chris it would just be awkward. Zach marked the beginning of where he had been told to start and handed it to Chris.

“Come on. Let’s go sit on the back step so we’re not just standing around.”

Zach and Chris strolled to the steps from the porch to the yard. Chris was reading the selection intently and his eyes were flitting about the page at rapid speed. Zach rolled his eyes, settling on the middle step so he could lean back a little. Chris fumbled about and sat down while attempting to keep reading the script.

“Do you want to…” Chris said switching between looking at their hands and Zach’s face.

“Why not,” Zach whispered softly and slipped his hand into Chris’s.

His hand felt worn. It carried the history of hard work and the softness of a guy who used hand lotion for its intended purpose. Zach wanted to caress his hand and feel along all the bumps, ridges and lines but he restrained himself. Chris thought this was all for a role. He had to make it fake enough to seem real enough.

“If I’m making this uncomfortable then you really don’t have to,” Chris insisted.

Zach looked at him through his lashes and smiled softly, teasingly. He led his gaze down their arms and to their entwined hands. His grip tightened slightly and he leaned in close.

“Who said anything about being uncomfortable,” he taunted.

Chris blushed subtly and turned away.

“You sure are good at this acting thing,” he mumbled.

They proceeded to read through the script for the next hour. It was clunky and rough at first as neither of them had ever actually read the script aloud. The two fumbled over one another and corrected each other when needed be. As time went on they began to add little movements and gestures at certain parts without ever having to say a word to each other. Most of it just seemed to happen. Zach would tilt his head, leaning it on Chris’s shoulder at a particular line and then Chris would rest his atop Zach’s a few lines later. It was smooth and beautiful in its own way.

Zach just wished that Chris could know it wasn’t entirely an act.


	2. Chapter Two

The section was doubtlessly well practiced as five o’clock rolled around. Zach gave gentle advice on where Chris should stress lines and what emotions to convey and slowly notices his improvement. He gradually gained confidence as time goes on and his smile grew wider with every moment. Zach smiled too, but for quite the different reasons. Chris seemed to be opening up and blossoming into all of it. It just came so naturally to him.

At one point Chris’s hand started to squirm in Zach’s. He shifted and then started to poke and tickle at Zach’s palm. Zach teased back, leaning into and bumping Chris so that they had to speak their lines through giggles. Everything about those passing moments was flawless and natural. _Perfection_.

“I probably ought to be home soon, or at least call. My parent’s will find out I didn’t go to practice and they’ll want to know I’m not out impregnating some girl,” Chris joked.

“Oh yeah, I’m sure pretending to be gay with the theatre geek from school will be a relief to their ears.”

Chris smiled as he slipped into the house, blue eyes twinkling.

Zach sighed, running his hands through his hair. He knew he was just creating a mess for himself. After all, in Chris’s head this had to look completely platonic and hilarious.

 _“God, he must be thinking ‘Ah, man! I’m holding a dude’s hand and pretending to be his boyfriend! What kinds of guys even do that?’”_ Zach thought to himself.

He looked at the swing set again. His dad had built it when they were still friends and before Chris had a trampoline. Both of them had thought he was the coolest dad ever that day. Or at least they did as they watched wide-eyed at the hammer, drill, nails and planks. Chris had found a particularly long nail however and shoved it head first up his nose. Zach was sure he had been more scared and cried harder than Chris, even after his Dad called Chris’s parents to okay just pulling it right back out. He couldn’t even remember why it had freaked him out so bad.

Zach smiled fondly on the memories that the wooden swing set brought back. He remembered when they found the 24 pack of colored permanent markers and declared the planks that composed its structure their canvas. Thinking back on it, they caused a lot of destruction in circumstantially found art supplies and the pursuit of creativity. He remembered Chris’s mom buying them washable paint and “weather proof” backyard easels soon after.

Chris’s footsteps sounded softly behind Zach and he turned to meet his gaze. He gave Zach a toothy grin as he tucked his phone back in his pocket and danced down the steps into the yard.

“Why so cheery all of a sudden?” Zach questioned, giving him an inquisitive look. “Did your dad give you an emotional speech about following your dreams and putting your desires first or some shit?”

“What? No,” he said, taken off guard. “Anyway, my mom said she’d cover for me and say I was out with the team this afternoon. I’m free to do whatever the hell I want all the rest of the day.”

Chris jumped into the air and pumped his fist as if he’d just won the lottery. Zach laughed but couldn’t help but wonder how restrictive Chris’s dad must be if this was treated like such a secretive treat. What in the world had he missed in all these years?

“I don’t know about you but I’m _starving_ ,” Chris said. “Do you want to go out and get something to eat?

“It’s only, like, four, Chris. Lunch was only a few hours ago. How are you hungry?”

“Come on, it’s five and you know you’re hungry too,” he bribed. “I haven’t even had a snack yet and I always do that. Are you trying to starve me or something?”

“Nah, just callin’ you fat. You’re a little beefy.”

“Shut up. We’re going for some food and you can’t stop me.”

He reached out and pulled Zach onto his feet. Zach couldn’t help but smile at the pure enthusiasm that Chris seemed to pour into everything. Chris snatched his keys off of the coffee table where the snacks from earlier still sat untouched. He did a double take and grabbed a handful of grapes, tossing one at Zach before he made his way out the door. Zach jogged after him

Zach felt a little jittery as he got into the passenger seat of Chris’s car. It wasn’t exactly because it was a nice car, which it was, but it was more that Chris’s personal space. Sure, it was just a car but it was also somewhat a representation of Chris himself. Zach had a tendency of viewing the interior of someone’s car as a step behind the interior of their bedroom.

The car, as expected, was actually nothing drastic or dramatic as far as car’s insides go. There were a multitude of pens, pencils and a slightly crumpled assignment strewn across the dash. An aged looking water bottle sat in the driver’s side cup holder. His black back pack was unzipped on the back seat and rested on a pair of football cleats, pants and Chris’s jersey. Zach still giggled childishly at Chris’s jersey number being 69.  

“Where are we going?” Chris asked cheerily from behind the wheel, looking expectantly at Zach.

“You’re the one who was hungry. You pick.”

“Nope,” he chirped. “If I’m going to pay, you’re going to pick. That’s the way it works with me.”

“That’s so dumb,” Zach huffed and slumped farther into his seat. “I was going to pay for myself anyway.”

Chris laughed. When he did, Zach perked up and looked sideways at him. It wasn’t like the almost loud chuckle Chris had with his friends. No, this laugh was _loud_ and it had a husky undertone. He threw his head back and gasped for air. It was genuine. Zach smiled and laughed back. Chris hadn’t seemed to notice his wonderment anyway.

“Don’t be so whiny,” he said through the fading giggles. “Just pick somewhere and let’s go.”

Zach resigns and chooses one of the cheesy diners that he likes to eat at with the cast after shows and some rehearsal nights. Chris knows the place for the same reason but with football games. Zach smiles inwardly at the thought that they may have sat in the same booth, had similar conversations or even ate the same thing just on different nights with different people. It was corny but Zach couldn’t help himself. In all this time they had been just a few steps away from one another.

The diner itself followed the classic 50’s theme. Home printed, faded pictures of Elvis and different stills from Grease were stuffed into plastic frames and hanging at lopsided angles on the walls. Assortments of cardstock-structure car graphics were placed on different tables. But despite the cheap and aged decorations the whole place still felt homey to Zach.

Rachel, their waiter, called both Chris and Zach by name before seating them. She had been a senior when Zach was just a freshman and they had been pretty good friends. One of her off hours had been Zach’s theatre class and she had visited often to help out and kill time. Zach had always liked that she made sure he felt included whenever she invited him to do stuff outside of class. Rachel had really helped him to move past his shy and quiet freshman stage.

When she caught Zach’s eye her smile was warm and almost expectant. He looked away rather quickly. She sat them at a booth of peeling turquoise and white vinyl that would stick to your skin if you sat still too long. Foam peaked out through rips and cracks here and there.

"Zach?" she said. "Are you going to be having your usual drink and meal?" He nodded to which she responded with a smirk and a scribbling of her pen. "And you Chris? You always keep me guessing if I remember correctly."

"Yeah, I guess I do." He laughed and plucked the menu from where it was pinned behind the condiments tray. "Can I just have whatever he’s getting?"

He looked across mockingly meaningfully at Zach and met his eye as if he was asking his permission. Zach rolled his eyes and looked instead at Rachel, who he supposed was waiting for his okay. She was smirking and there was a look in her eye that said _You two might not be saying anything but I know what’s going on here._

"He’s paying for it," he scoffed. "Go ahead and do it."

That was the problem with Rachel. She had a tendency to jump to conclusions and make assumptions out of thin air. Granted, this one had some truth to be grounded in but often times her ideas were extreme misconceptions. At least she kept her thoughts to herself.

"Dude, what was that," Chris questioned in a loud whisper as he leaned across the table.

"What was what," Zach replied nonchalantly. and leaned against the back wall.

”’ _He’s paying for it.’_  What the hell do you even get at this place?”

"Why can’t you just be patient? One day you’re going to be so on edge waiting for a bus or train or something and you’ll just jump out in the street before it’s stopped."

"What?"

"You’re going to jump in front of a moving bus and die," Zach replied in a monotone.

Chris began laughing again and threw himself back against the booth. Zach was almost taken aback at how easily amused Chris was but in the end he couldn’t help but laugh along. It was like Chris saw the entire world as a source of the best entertainment. It was hard to think of Chris ever being bored or upset.

"So how do you know Rachel?"

"Who?"

Chris looked over his shoulder and it seemed as if he was trying to be inconspicuous. Of course, he wasn’t, and Zach watched as he leaned farther and farther out of the booth and looked farther and farther over his shoulder until he was lying sideways on the seat. He continued to crane his neck and look around as if all of this was completely routine. Lifting his feet from the floor, he lay down on the seat and, with his head dangling. He looked up at Zach, amused.

“I usually use this trick on girls,” he said as he folded his hands on his stomach. “They think it’s quirky and adorable. It’s a real hook.”

“Are you flirting with me?” Zach jested as he placed a hand to his chest in mock consternation.

Chris raised an eyebrow. “Do you want me to be?”

A burst of crimson colored Zach’s cheeks and his eyes went wide. He gulped from behind the menu he was now hiding behind. Chris’s giggle was clearly audible despite his being out of eyesight. Luckily Rachel appeared with the tray full of milkshakes to distract the both of them.

He looked smugly as the eight-usually four-milkshakes were transferred from the tray to the table. Chris’s eyes went wide and his mouth hung just barely in surprise. When Zach let out a little chortle Chris tore his eye from the milkshakes and gave Zach an utterly hilarious look. As if he still wasn’t taking it in, he slid his look up to Rachel and gave her the same helpless stare.

  “Milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard, huh Zach?” Rachel teased.

Zach’s face slipped from self-righteous to entirely unamused.

“Would you give us a minute, Chris?”

Chris nodded absently and continued to gaze at the shakes and their accompanying metal cups containing more.

Zach gripped Rachel by the arm and dragged her into the small hallway that adjoined the restrooms. She giggled until she saw the seriousness in Zach’s face. She crossed her arms and leaned back. Rachel had a tendency of doing this when she wanted Zach to know she wasn’t about to take Zach’s sour attitude seriously.

“What is it this time Zach?” she huffed. “You know, I get real tired of this shit you do. I swear, you’re worse than a girl. If you bring a guy in here-let alone a guy you’ve been swooning over for, like, three years-and he starts acting all flirty then I’m going to assume you’re planning on hoo-”

“Rachel! Ok, stop. This is all really stupid and it shouldn’t even be happening, okay? All of this is for theatre and Chris just thinks this all pretend.”

“You mean you turned your cocky, little football player into a star of the stage,” she whispered in giddy disbelief.

“Not really, my friends are mainly responsible.”

“Oh my god!”

“We’re playing a gay couple and he just wanted help getting it right,” he grumbled.

“Oh my god,” she repeated. “Listen, I’ve got to get back to work but you need to call me with all the details later. This is better than dorm room drama!”

She turned on her heel and swept back towards the kitchens. Zach sighed before putting on his best smile and returning to his and Chris’s table. Apparently the awe had worn off and he was tucking into the assorted treats.

“Dude! Why the hell do you get four freaking milkshakes?” Chris exclaimed.

Zach ran his finger along the edge of the smooth glass and reminisced about all of the sweet memories from past shows. Theatre was where he had always belonged. Theatre was where he was always accepted. He remembered the first time he got the lead and how everyone had thought that “that weird, shy kid would just drag everyone down.” He remembered how Rachel had believed in him and how everyone had been so shocked when he pulled through and did a better performance than anyone else.

It had been Zach’s idea to start coming to this diner after each of the final shows. At first everyone had been tentative but they came around to at once. They were all together for a time when they wouldn’t have to stress about costume malfunctions, forgotten lines, missed cues or anything. They could chat about something other than the play or their character. It was being together in a way they hadn’t had a chance to before.

“Usually me and a whole bunch of my friends get together and I order the milkshakes and we all sample them. Everyone else gets to order their own entrée. It’s usually a pretty big chunk of change since I don’t have a job but I guess I don’t have to worry about that today,” Zach remarked as he leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head.

Chris scowled and glared up at Zach with his lower lip protruding poutily. Whipped cream dotted his upper lip and milkshake dripped from off his chin. It was all rather ridiculous. Zach couldn’t decide whether Chris’s look was hilarious or alluring. But then he noticed Zach looking. He shifted and smiled seductively as he used his napkin gently wipe away the mess. He pulled the napkin across his chin so that it pulled at his lips, exposing his teeth beneath ever so slightly. Zach scowled disapprovingly and folded his arms over his chest.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in love with me or something?”

“No,” Zach said firmly but with a smile in his tone. “My potential character is in love with your potential character. Those two things are drastically different.”

Chris snorted. “Is that a nice way of saying I disgust you?”

“It might be,” Zach replied, turning his face and looking towards the ceiling.

Chris turned his grin to the table and stirred absent mindedly at the remaining glasses. He rubbed tiredly at his, now sticky, face even though it was only the late afternoon. Zach noticed that he seemed to be thinking of something. His blue eyes were adrift in a sea of old memories and happy expectations. It was mesmerizing to see him so at peace with his thoughts.

Chris himself was thinking of their childhood as Zach had earlier that day. The memories, of course, were near replications of Zach’s with a changed detail here or a different bit of dialogue there. His later memories weren’t looked upon as fondly but Chris still immersed himself in the optimism and laughter of the years before he moved away. He remembered Zach’s hand dunked in a bucket of moss green paint and getting soaked beneath the garden hose as he and Zach had played make believe hair salon together.

Chris almost laughed when he remembered a long ago game of tag when he had rammed into a swing, thinking if he just ran fast enough it would catapult him into the apple tree and he would be too far away for Zach to reach. Unfortunately, his imagination was far too wild for reality to keep up and he had merely wound up dumped into the beaten ground below. He had fallen on his head which had resulted in a quick run to the emergency room. Both households had gone and Chris faintly remembered Zach holding his hand all the way there.

But that couldn’t have been. He had been scared and crying harder than he could ever remember crying. Chris wasn’t sure if it had been from the gravel that dotted his scratched face and was falling into his eyes or just the fear that his father’s angry yells of “irresponsibility’ and “he could have died” had instilled in him. Either way it had terrified him. Chris could still remember his father trading off from glaring at Zach’s father to glaring at both Chris and Zach.

That was one of the first time he remembered his father being upset with him but it surely wasn’t the last.

Rachel appeared just then and set down the hamburger laden plates before picking up the empty glasses.

“You two have fun now,” she trilled. “And be sure to let me know if you need anything else.”

Zach looked at her flatly which she countered with a dazzling smile and a wink. She patted him on the head twice and set their ticket down on the table. Zach batted at her hand but she turned and sauntered away in a pompous manner before it could do any good. The smug look she threw over his shoulder broke his miffed façade. He smiled and turned back to Chris.

He stared down his burger with ravenous intent as he decorated it with ketchup and mustard. The zeal he put into the task made it seem artful as well as exciting. Never had Zach seen someone so eager to prepare a hamburger before eating it. Once again, he thought to himself, absolutely ridiculous.

For a moment he was able to tear his eyes from the task and met Zach’s amused look. He took a moment to look at the bottles of condiments, gripped in either hand. In another moment he glanced to the main course now dressed with a swirl of yellow and red.

“What,” he questioned, obviously entertained by his own actions.

“How in the world are you still hungry? You just had like four and a half of these,” Zach remarked as he fiddled with the spoon in the glass nearest him.

“I play football. Food is my fuel.”

“Nice try but I’m sure two hours of line rehearsal is a lot less taxing than football practice.”

“Shut up.”

Zach smiled, mostly to himself and picked at his own meal. He preferred to eat any of the meals here with the available silverware. Most of the dishes were served in a cesspool of grease and fat and to add condiments only added to what would inevitably drip into your shirt sleeves. Chris, however, gripped the thing with both hands and took monstrous bites, wolfing down the thing in easily under two minutes.

Manners obviously weren’t part of warm ups, although, that was probably the opposite of a narcissistic athlete’s ideals. Most of them seemed to be self centered, rude and loud simply because they could. You couldn’t keep a star athlete from practice, let alone suspend or expel them. How would you hold up a school’s honor if your quarterback was barred from school activities?

A bitter laugh escaped Zach’s thoughts and materialized in the silence. When Chris gave him a questioning look he covered it up in a cough. No optimistic like Chris likes to hang out with an absinthial theatre arts student.

He reflected on all the times he’d been scolded for things many of Chris’s friends had gotten away with with ease. The “no headgear on school grounds” policy was in place when Zach wore his beanies but not when the wide receiver wore the school ball cap. Profanity was met with stern lecturings-that is, unless you turn to the home bleacher and shouted “Are we gonna kick some ass tonight or what?” If you had an off period you had to set in the library or the commons, unless you were “just going to get your gear out of your locker.”

Zach grimaced at the way this school coveted their sports teams. Sure, football’s great but so are academics and arts programs.

“What are you thinkin’ about,” Chris asked from around a french fry.

“What,” Zach asked, suddenly startled out of his thoughts. “Oh, uh, nothing,” he mumbled and pushed his plate away. “Have this. I’m not really hungry.”

“Dude, you’ve hardly eaten anything. How are you not hungry?”

“How are you?”

Chris smirked and pulled the plate the rest of the way across the table. Zach watched as his hand hovered above the plate in a moment of hesitation, His eyes darted to Zach’s for a split second and Zach could swear he could see a gleam of panic.

“Are you-are you just eating this much to impress with your masculine prowess or something?” he asked, incredulous. Chris blushed sheepishly. “Oh my god! You are! Let me tell you something. I don’t care if you eat an entire elephant carcass, eating a gargantuan amount of food isn’t going to catch my attention.”

“Well apparently it did so…”

“You’re an idiot, you know that?”

Zach shifted to the far edge of the booth and leaned out to see if Rachel was anywhere nearby. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Chris pushed both plates out of his immediate reach and fished a fifty out of his wallet. When he finally found her, he saw that she was wrapped up in conversation with some guy at the counter. Her smile matched the dreaminess in her eyes and she was leaned across the counter with her chin perched in her hands. He smirked.

“Come on,” Zach said, gesturing towards the door. “Rachel can take care of all this herself.”

“I guess so,” Chris said and followed Zach out the door.

Rachel ignored Zach as he waved goodbye and instead giggled and pushed herself closer to whoever had caught her fancy this time. He laughed and started towards Chris’s car. When he turned, he caught Chris looking over his shoulder at the two still inside the diner. His eyes were wide, innocent and carried a hint of envy.

“Don’t tell me you think that shit is romantic.”

“I-I don’t know, man,” Chris stuttered and fumbled with his keys. “Uh, hey, listen. I really ought to get in some kind of exercise. I’ve got a basketball in the back if you want to go the park and play a little.”

“Are you asking me on a date,” he asked sarcastically despite the buzzing feeling welling up inside of him.

“Sure, if that’s what you want to call it. We’re going on a date.”

Zach hid his rosy blush behind a cough as he moved into the passenger seat. He could tell that Chris was awfully proud of that comment. Every so often he would glance at Zach, hum a proud, little tune and drum his fingers on the steering wheel. Zach rolled his eyes and fixed his hair in the side view mirror.

Basketball-well, there wasn’t much to say about it. It was nice to be out in the crisp mid-evening air but most of that was set aside as the two engaged one another in the game. Zach had anticipated it to be more poetic than two guys scrimmaging over a ball, which it wasn’t, and Chris had expected it to be an easy match, which it wasn’t.

As it turned out, for Zach it was just basketball. He was playing a game against Chris Pine who simply became another human being while playing. It was about the game and not the feelings he had, or the rush of giddiness that happened when they touched, or the speed up of his heart rate when they met each other’s eyes unexpectedly. It was just a concentrated game of basketball. No angst or romance. Just a game.

Chris had expected Zach to be an easy match. He had been imagining dozens of baskets amounting to his victory while occasionally giving Zach a pity point or two. After all, Zach was that scrawny looking geeky guy that had a tendency to spout off lines from his parts in regular conversation. Even in skinny jeans and borrowed t shirt Zach had managed to challenge him.

Both of them panted as the ball was knocked from the court and into the grassy strip running along the sidewalk. Chris leaned over, placing a hand on his knee to support himself. Zach leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head. Through his dark eyelashes, Chris gazed up at Zach and the two laughed when they locked eyes. It was a nice feeling.

Zach staggered in the direction of the ball, but passed it to sit on the grassy knoll on the other side of the sidewalk. Chris followed, as was becoming habit, and scooped up the ball as he ambled over to set next to Zach. He looked at Zach, leaned back and resting on his elbows, alternating gazing at the setting sun and the encroaching darkness. Chris smiled a crooked smile and sat cross legged next to him.

“Zach?” he said timidly.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for this. It was a pretty cool day.”

“Yeah,” he paused. “Me, too, Chris.”


	3. Chapter Three

Yet again, it was lunch time. Zach had made the very firm decision of sitting with Mel in a secluded corner of the performing arts hall to nap instead of sitting in the lunchroom. He had spent most of last night texting Mel and Rachel the initial report. Mel had worked her magic and sent most of their usual group a summary but there were still the few who wanted every savory detail. His usual crash time of ten-thirty had been pushed to one-fifteen.

 The only hall that wasn’t off limits during lunch hour was the performing arts hall. The practice rooms were sound proofed for the most part, save for the occasional abnormally loud note. The instrument locker room was the last room left without motion sensored lights so he often retreated there to nap for the forty five minutes of lunch when necessary. Mel would accompany him to wake him up at the bell and would blog from her phone while he slept.

 Today however, that wasn’t the case. Mel inundated him with questions and set her cell phone to its flashlight setting, permeating the dark at an irritating level. Her face was lit with exhileration and her eyes twinkled in anticipation of every answer he fed her.

 ”Mel, I texted everything to you last night,” he groaned, and then turned towards the wall in avoidance of her pestering light. “There’s nothing else to know.”

 ”Of course there’s more to know! You only told me the basics. I want to know evertything!”

 ”You  _do_  know everything, Mel,” he sighed exasperatedly. “We read lines, went to lunch and then went and played some basketball. It was nothing really significant.”

 ”Everything is significant, Zach. This was like a major leap for you.” Zach tried to respond but she continued to talk over him. “Like, I gave you the most romantic part of the whole play and you’re telling me that you ‘just read lines.’ Whatever. That scene involves a lot of physical contact. You had a golden opportunity to hold his hand, so did you?”

Zach added another reason to be thankful of the dark. He could feel his cheeks reddening as he pressed himself further against the grate at the front of a row of violin lockers. Mel’s expectant silence hung in the air and he could feel her presence leaning over him. Whenever she got excited and was capable of doing so, Mel would sit on her knees, rise up, lean forward a little and stare at you until you gave her what she wanted. It wasn’t often that people left her waiting for the responses she desired.

“Mel, it wasn’t a big deal.”

“So, you did hold hands!” She shouted in excitement. “You’re not joking? Oh my gosh! You held his hand and he held your hand! Oh my gosh! Is that it? Did you kiss?”

“God damn it, Mel, shut up! You kept me up feeding you and your harpies the main story line. I’m not going to sit here and quench your thirst for gay romance.”

“Did you?”

“Seriously?” He turned over in time to see her nod giddily, her phone highlighting the contours of her face. “No, Mel. We didn’t kiss. We held hands and it was really gross because we were both really clammy and nervous and it was not romantic at all.”

He said this all with a stern, lackluster tone but Mel still maintained her excitement. Her face was red with new ideas of what all had happened yesterday. Zach usually found it precious but now was not one of those times.

“I’m totally going to make some posts about this,” she exclaimed, hunching over her phone and moving her thumbs at a rapid pace.

“Yeah, have fun with that.”

—-

Chris hadn’t realized just how much he and his friends touched one another. After spending an afternoon with Zach he now saw the extreme contrast between the people he usually surrounded himself with and everyone else. He found himself looking around at all the people on their own individual seats with their own individual portions of table. Their tones were audible but not roaring and there were barely ever any incidences of more people than chairs at a table.

His situation was quite the opposite. Those friends that hadn’t reached the table first were looming over those that had, leaning on them and draping their arms over them. They shouted and whooped and shoved into one another constantly. Of course, Chris was not exempt from this behavior but he was only just now realizing how utterly _obnoxious_ it was.

Zach had seemed so hesitant about everything yesterday but he had also been warm, pleasant and reserved. Never once had he gotten in Chris’s face, teased him for missing a line or gave him a dead arm for “acting like a wussy.” It had just been comfortable.

He had noticed almost right away that Zach wasn’t at his usual table. Chris couldn’t even remember why he knew that or when he had memorized that. His frizzy haired friend was also gone, too, though, so that could mean that they had just gone out for lunch today. That didn’t seem like the kind of thing Zach usually did, though.

Most of this lunch period had been filled with a flood of accusing taunting questions about why he wasn’t at practice yesterday. He had dodged most of them by saying he had had a doctor’s appointment to see if physical therapy would help his muscle strength but he could tell that most of them weren’t buying it.

Unlike most people, they didn’t hide it either.

“Come on, Chris! We know that your dad would never schedule a doctor’s appointment during practice. What were you really doing yesterday?”

“Yeah!”

“Yeah, Chris. The JV team really needs your support,” Sam, the quarterback, beleaguered.

Chris bit tongue and ignored them. Ever since he’d had all of these issues flare up he’d been moved from varsity to junior varsity to lower the intensity in order to preserve what physical capability he had left. The varsity members still treated him like part of the team but that didn’t take away from the fact that Chris didn’t even get to sit on the bench, didn’t even go to the varsity games anymore. That is, he wouldn’t go if his dad didn’t drag him along and make him sit in the parent’s section with him for every home game.

His father had been the advocate for not letting Chris get access on the field during games. It had been very cut and dry that if Chris wasn’t improving the team on the field he definitely wouldn’t be improving the team by taking up space on the bench. With his disability that was all his father saw him as now: a waste of space.

He was meant to be the best defensive lineman this school ever saw, not that anyone paid much attention to defensive linemen. Chris had been bred and raised to follow in the footsteps his father could not leave and become the star athlete, get a good scholarship and settle into some big shot profession. That was the plan.

Chris’s dad didn’t talk much about high school. From what he could surmise, his father had been pretty lonely and miserable throughout those four years and saw an opportunity to change that fate for his son. Chris had been raised to eat, breathe and sweat football and athleticism. With football had come friends, skipping school for out of town games and girls. He couldn’t complain really. Well, he couldn’t until his body just decided to quit.

“Hey, Chris,” Sam ribbed. “Thinkin’ about that thespian you made sweet, sweet love to in the reference section last night?”

Chris turned, shocked. “What? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Dude, I’m just kidding. Here,” he said, tossing Chris a Tupperware container. “Coach made you these while you were living your little Shakespearean double life last night. ‘Said we need to chow down on this shit and carb load before the next game. This is your batch.”

“I’m not going to this one,” Chris rejected, sliding the container back across the table. “You can have these.”

“What? Come on, Chris. I was joking. That team needs your ass on the field this Thursday!”

“I’m sure they can do without,” Chris replied passively and walked away.

Chris approached the table that Zach usually sat at. He had never been a guy to get himself worked up but as he came closer his pulse quickened and his hands began to feel clammy. Not only had he just blown off all of his friends but he was now going to sit with all those _theatre creeps._ Or at least that was what it looked like. His eyes darted among the group in search of a familiar face and finally settled on Krista.

Krista was an ex of Chris’s. When she had first moved to town she had been quickly accepted and climbed the social ladder faster than you could blink. She had seemed to gain most everyone’s favor, including his. Unfortunately, she hadn’t gained full trust from one of Chris’s other ex’s that she had then considered a friend. Chris had dated Krista almost a week after breaking up with Samantha. That also happened to be a week after Krista started school.

Chris swore it was pure coincidence, but after a fight that was your typical “The reason he broke up with me is because he was cheating on me with you” the two had stopped speaking and Chris had to break up with her to keep his reputation. They had dated two months. God, he’d been such an asshole to her, to both of them. He hoped Krista would let it slide.

By worrying about his reputation, Krista had gotten hers completely destroyed. She was rejected by everyone and labeled a slut. Just as quickly as she had floated to the top, Krista plummeted to the bottom and eventually found herself in between after finding solace among the theatre students.

“Uh, hey, Krista,” he called timidly as he approached. “Remember me.”

When she smiled sweetly and met his eye Chris breathed out a sigh of relief.

“How could I forget you, Chris,” she chirped. “What’re you doin’ over here?”

“No big reason, I guess,” he said and eased into the empty seats as the rest of the table observed the conversation in hushed silence. “Actually, do you know where Zach is? There was something I needed to talk to him about and I know he usually sits over here.”

He noticed the tone of the table change as everyone exchanged knowing looks and a girl with wavy blonde hair exchanged giggles with a girl with excessively dyed hair.

Krista smiled. “Zach’s down in the instrument locker room,” she said pleasantly.

“Thanks Krista,” he said and got up to leave.

He turned for a moment, wanting to say something about how he regretted all of the stuff that happened between them last year. He wanted to apologize for everything he put her through. By the time he looked back, though, each of them had crowded towards the center and were talking a mile a minute. They spoke boisterously in a way that he couldn’t determine who was saying what. He turned and headed for the music hall.

The hall was lit more dimly than the rest of the school but not so much that you would notice if you were used to it. It was considerably smaller in width than the other halls but still found enough room to be bordered by lockers on either wall. Who even got their locker assigned down here?

                Each of the three rooms seemed to be cluttered together. The door for the orchestra and choir room looming closely to one corner and the band room door three feet from the choir door. On the opposite wall were embedded the doors to the two practice rooms and the locker room. Chris saw that the door was open but it was dark inside

                “Hello?” He knocked and heard two voices whispering hurriedly to each other inside. “Am I interrupting something,” he asked coyly.

Suddenly a girl clutching a phone and lighting her way with it trotted down the short hall and met him at the door. When she looked up to see who it was her eyes went wide and her mouth went slightly agape.

“Yeah, I can have that affect on people.”

She scowled and rolled her eyes at that. He laughed. No one-no _girl_ \- had ever reacted to his cheesy flirting that way before. It was nice not to have a girl just drool and swoon.

“You’re that Birch guy, right?” she asked disinterestedly and checked her phone.

“Uh, yeah, and it’s Pine. First name’s Chris, by the way.”

“Yeah, I got that. I assume you’re here to see Zach.” She didn’t wait for a response. “Yeah, he came down here to get some sleep. He thought you might show up.”

“Me?”

“No, genius, the other vain football player that’s living a double life.”

“What? Oh, come on. One guy goes and recites a few lines and suddenly he’s labeled a Hannah Montana?”

“I don’t even want to know how you know that reference. Anyway, Zach told me to tell you that he’s napping and can’t be bothered to answer the door right now.”

“Mind if I join the party,” he prodded flirtatiously. “I thought I heard you chattin’ someone up when I called. So unless Zach’s fluently sleep talking I sure wouldn’t want to miss out on a good lights-out crowd.”

“Shit. Zach he caught us,” she stated in a monotone over her shoulder. “Go ahead and come on out.”

Zach came down the hall, a sheepish look on his face. His hair was rumpled as if he had been sleeping at one point. Of course, he never knew what Zach and this girl had been up to in there-in the dark. Chris gave him a knowing look, raising his eyebrows and smirking.

“I’m sorry, did I step in on a moment?”

Zach exchanged shocked looks with the girl. She blushed and retreated into the room and Zach folded his arms over his chest rather uncomfortably. Chris chuckled.

“What’s up?”

“Why were you trying to pull one over on me?”

“I asked first.”

“Mine’s probably got a simpler answer.”

Zach sighed. “To be honest, Mel is having a total girl fit and thinks we’ve got some secret romance going on like the one in the play. She gets a little whimsical like that.”

“Woah, what? She seriously thinks we’ve got a little, gay love affair going on? That’s ridiculous.” Chris could feel himself fumbling over his words. “Why would we even-? Like, we only just started speaking again yesterday. I mean, neither of us are even…you know.”

Zach’s eyes went wide at that and his mouth fell open a little. He shifted his arms tighter.

“Yeah, totally. Neither of us.”

There was an awkward and heavy pause. Zach looked down self consciously at his shoes and Chris ran his hand through his hair in an attempt to hide his embarrassment. He sure had talked himself into a hole there.

“I just-I wanted to know if you’re still good with meeting back at your house and doing a quick once over of lines before heading to auditions. If that’s good with you, I mean.”

Zach brightened considerably. “Yeah, that’s good. Auditions are about forty five minutes after school gets out so I guess we’ll just head back here after. Ms. P told me you turned in a reserved time slot slip, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Chris mumbled bashfully. “I’m the first up if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s great. She said it’s fine if we audition together, too.” He paused and took on a more serious tone. “You sure you’re ready to commit to this?”

“Yeah, Yeah! I’m not just going to snag a part and ditch you guys. I’ve gotta do something to keep me busy.”

Zach smiled and tucked his hands in his pockets, hunching his shoulders just a little. He turned to retreat back into the locker room.

“I guess I’ll see you at my place after school?”

Chris nodded. “See you then.”

He watched Zach’s figure recede back into the room. As he neared the slight turn into the actual locker room itself he looked over his shoulder and his smile was genuine and bright. Chris smiled back and waved as Zach disappeared.

His smile didn’t recede until he reached the threshold of the lunchroom again. There were still fifteen minutes left in this lunch period. Goin back to his friends wasn’t an option after he had fumed like that and he really didn’t have reasonable grounds to sit with Zach’s theatre friends or even Zach himself. Out of all the people he’d met and made the acquaintance of up to this third year of high school, he couldn’t bring to mind any that would let him just sit down and chat without question.

For a guy so popular, he felt irrefutably alone.

Avoiding looking to the area where Sam and everyone else were sat, Chris ducked through the lunch room and into the hall leading to the library. The only time he’d ever been to the library was for English classes and to pick up his ID at the start of every year. Sure, he liked books and literature but this was where all the freaks and other social outcasts herded to. The librarians tried too hard to get you to read the books that won the yearly school award. When they weren’t doing that, they were goading you to take a scented cardstock bookmark or leave a book suggestion.

He signed in quickly, exchanging a quick hello with the younger Librarian. She asked if he needed help finding anything but he politely and hastily refused and retreated into the sparsely populated reference section. A few whispers and quiet comments were exchanged as he passed by, but he was used to that. You had to be if you were as well known as he was.

After a quick look around to see if no one was looking, he reached into his bag and pulled out his own book. It was some novel his mother had picked up from a women’s reading group. She had made it out to be absolutely riveting so he decided it couldn’t really hurt to give it a try. The book cover had seemed absolutely garish and disorganized, and the main character just just came off as a whiny jerk at first. It wasn’t soon, however, until he found himself tearing through the pages.

It was a very underground novel. Not the kind of thing you’d find sitting on someone’s shelf nestled next to gone with the wind, nor was it the thing you’d see flipped through and discarded. No, it was a good book, and it was the kind of the book that, if you read it, you cherished it. Chris had read through most of it and had skimmed through the rest in utter anticipation, incapable of waiting to see what happened. Of course, he’d get to the parts eventually, but eventually was not soon enough.

“Whatcha readin’?”

He startled from his indulged reading and snapped it shut. Chris looked up to see who had even bothered to come down this aisle just to make an inquiry about his reading material. He was both startled and ticked.

But then he recognized the girl from the locker room. Her grin was mischievous and her eyes twinkled with the vicious reality that she knew something he didn’t. He eased his facial expression from annoyance to an almost libidinous smirk. She repeated her earlier response of rolling her eyes and looking suddenly disinterested.

“I honestly don’t see what anyone sees in you. You’re a cocky, shaggy haired bastard.”

“You think so,” he asked as he stood to match her height.

She looked him in the eye flatly and then transitioned to once again scrolling through whatever was on her phone. “I’d still like to know what it is you’re so covertly trying to read.”

“Why is that you want to know?”

“I’ve heard from a source or two that even though you’re a complete bonehead you might have an ounce in good taste.” She seemed to do a small double take. “Of course, the way you dress isn’t in accordance with that observation.”

“With all that snark I can see how you and Zach would balance each other nicely,” he commented.

“Oh you should hear his sass when he’s not trying to impress people or come off as innocent little Quinto. He’s worse than me sometimes. It’s awful.”

“Wow,” he replied. “I, uh-I’m reading this book called This Book Will Save Your Life, if you still cared.”

“God, you’re so pretentious. Did you pick that up from some soft grunge blog?”

“What?”

“Nevermind. I’m actually here to dig up a little dirt and we’re running a little short on time.”

“Are we?”

“Yes, now quit with the flirty chit chat, Casanova,” she said. “Zach’s too shy to ask or even ask me to ask, but he wants to know if there’s a reason you’re all hunky dory leading lady all of a sudden. Your friends looked a little put off when I swung back through the lunch room on my way here, too. What’s up with that?”

Chris felt caught. How do you answer to something like that when you, yourself, don’t even know? She looked up from her phone expectantly and he noticed her tapping her foot. However coincidentally the bell rang and signaled the end of lunch. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’ve already got your number. You’ll be hearing about this later.”

Chris could only wonder what that meant.

—-

Zach’s eyes slid back and forth as he watched Chris pace. They had been instructed to wait in the hall outside the auditorium until everything was assembled and organized, and the anticipation seemed to be killing Chris.

“Do you want to look at the script again,” Zach asked, extending the packet in Chris’s direction.

“No, no.” He waved his hand absent mindedly and continued pacing thoughtfully. “We’ve looked at it enough I think we’ll have it down.”

“Remember to emote even when you’re reading,” Zach offered. “Don’t make it sound flat and lifeless.”

Chris nodded. Whether it was too himself or to Zach, he wasn’t sure. At this point in his life, Zach didn’t see auditions as a big deal anymore. You got up on stage, you read and you smiled when you found the results. What else could you do?

Zach could see that Chris had the exact opposite case. After all, he had just picked up a script for the first time just yesterday and as far as Zach knew he had no experience. His shaggy hair was frazzled due to the multiple times he had run his hands through it. The scruff along his chin and jaw was showing a little redness from sporadic nervous scratching. When he shifted his arms to his sides he only began picking at the hem of his shirt.

Here was invincible Chris Pine, heartthrob of North River high school. His cocky grin and twinkling, electric blue eyes distinctive, even underneath that grass stained helmet. Chris Pine, who could charm and persuade his way out of any situation with pure charisma. This was a guy everyone knew and respected just because he was who he was.

And here was a Chris Pine composed of anxiety and nervousness. Zach could see in his eyes and by the look on his face that there was quite the internal debate going on. He looked frustrated, scared and doubtful. It was as if Zach had been looking at a painting all along to just now discover that there was another panel.

He stood in fretful Chris’s path.

“Hey, are you okay,” he confronted.

“I’m fine,” he said, shaking his head and taking on a complacent look. “What, weren’t you ever nervous before?”

“Well, yeah, but you look absolutely terrified. It’s like you’re going in for a murder trial, not an audition.”

“It might as well be a murder trial,” Chris grumbled as he took a seat on the bench Zach had been sitting on moments ago. “My parents would kill me if they found out I was doing this. Mostly my dad, though.”

Zach bit his tongue before continuing, but he couldn’t help but say what he was about to say. He felt this overwhelming sense that Chris might just feel pressured into all of this what with the entirety of his friends brain washing him into it. Being guilty was not something Zach did well.

“You don’t have to do this, you know. If it’s just going to put a bunch of stress on your life you really-”

“You keep saying that and it just makes me wanna do it more, you know that? I think you’re just trying to throw me off. You want someone else to be your gay lover or something?”

Zach laughed with Chris. He shook his head dramatically as he took his seat again. Chris tilted his head and looked at him as he laughed. The situation soon dissolved into the two giggling at an obnoxiously loud volume.

“What are you boys laughing about out here,” Ms. Perry joked as she emerged from the auditorium.

Chris got to his feet quickly and faced her. All the tautness and seriousness returned to his face immediately and Zach couldn’t help but be amused by it. Ms. Perry caught his eye and gave him a knowing smile. He seemed to be getting quite a few of those lately.

“Come on in,” she invited. “We’ve got everything set up and we’ll be starting soon. You, Chris, can grab a copy of the script and look through it if you want. I’ll tell you which section we’ll be doing cold reading of once everyone is here.”

Zach nodded silently and propelled Chris towards the entrance. He offered Chris a confident smile, but this time he only returned a nervous gulp as his eyebrows knitted closer together. Zach couldn’t help but feel nervous for him.

There was a table set up in front of the first row that was laden with forms, scripts and informational pamphlets. Most of it was unnecessary garbage, so Zach steered Chris to get the character preference form, the script, the agreement terms and the practice schedule. When handed each of them, he gripped the papers in both hands intensely and followed Zach like a stray dog to the seating on the other side of the stairs.

“What were all those things she had on the table back there?” Chris questioned as he craned his neck to look at the table again.

“Just a whole bunch of trash. There’s makeup kit order forms, theatre camp pamphlets, class descriptions, the local theatre brochure and schedule of events. They’re just things Ms. Perry does to try and reel people in. There are always a few of those rogues that are too good to take class but they audition for the shows anyway. That’s just her ploy to suck them further in than afternoon rehearsal.”

“Oh. Do a lot of people come? Like, people that want the lead parts.”

“Well, yeah but Ms. P never picks them. If you take the class and you show a genuine interest beyond wanting the lead just because it’s the lead than you have a good chance of getting in.”

“But I don’t take a class,” he said anxiously as he ran his finger tips along the edge of his new script.

“Don’t worry, Chris,” Zach clucked. “We’ve got it taken care of.”

Chris nodded absently, and flipped through his script packet to the part they had rehearsed countless times yesterday. His knee jumped frantically up and down as his eyes traced the lines. Under his breath, he whispered the leading role’s part. Zach noticed his breathing quickening and his hands shaking.

“Chris.”

“What?” he gasped, jumping as if snuck up on.

“It’s ok. You can calm down,” he soothed. “Just get up there and do what we did a million times yesterday. Ms. Perry already loves you. I swear.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Seriously, just calm down a little and focus on the try out, not what anyone else is going to think. Everyone in theatre three class is already rooting for you,” Zach reassured.

“Wait-really? Everyone in your class?”

“Yep. We all want you to get the part. You’re already part of the team. I believe in you, Chris.”

A smile smile crept its way onto Chris’s face and he settled into his chair. He fiddled at the edge of his script contently. Zach smiled to himself as well, reaching across and patting Chris on the shoulder farthest from him. They exchanged excited looks.

“Alright,” Ms. Perry as she took her place in front of the stage at the center of the auditorium. “Today you’ll all be auditioning for roles in our upcoming show ‘Twisted Fate.’ Those of you who signed up for slots prior to this afternoon will be auditioning first and then those in my classes, followed by anyone else who has come. Once you’re up on stage I’ll present you with the passage you’ll be doing a cold reading of, and I’ll let you know when I’ve seen enough. But enough of that! First up we have a double audition with Chris Pine and Zach Quinto.”

Chris leapt to his feet and looked back to make sure Zach was following before ascending the stairs to the stage. Mark and Nathan, the heads of the school theatre props division, had moved a bench onto center stage. So Mel had been right about the scene they were doing. Zach led Chris to the edge of the stage where they waited for Ms. Perry’s instructions.

“I’d like you to start on page 18 of the script at ‘I just wish everything weren’t so frustrating.’ Please try to follow the stage directions and convey as much emotion as possible. Take as long as you need to start.”

They moved to the bench where they then sat. Chris took in a shaky breath and gave Zach a wide eyed look of fear. It was subtle enough that anyone in the audience wouldn’t notice much, but just so that Zach could tell just how nervous he really was. Without thinking he reached out, squeezed his hand and gave him a curt nod. The stormy look cleared, replaced by that small smile again, and he nodded in return before returning to his script.

Chris’s voice trembled at first, and he gripped the script as if it were the only thing keeping him from bursting. Zach watched, already knowing most of the lines from this scene. This had been expected. Zach was sure that if he actually looked at his old first audition tape that he would be the same save for the seven year age difference. Stage fright could get the best of everyone.

But then Chris looked up a little, glanced at Zach as he continued reciting the lines. His hands moved closer to his lap and his voice strengthened and carried across the auditorium. Zach almost forgot to reply with his character’s line he was so impressed by the sudden transformation. Chris struggled to contain his smile beneath the character’s actual emotions, and Zach found himself doing the same. Yet, when it did come time for their characters to smile, nothing had felt more genuine.

Their hands slipped together again, but this time it didn’t just feel like two boys pretending to be two different roles. They could feel the trust and confidence just from the touch. The grip was tighter, stronger, and it meant so much more than just holding hands. Chris glanced up at Zach again as he moved to rest his head on his shoulder and the look only reaffirmed all those feelings. They read their lines so fluidly and easily that it might as well have been an actual conversation they were sharing.

When Ms. Perry called the cue for them to stop, they both seemed almost startled out of a dream. Both sat up ram rod straight and stared down at the table she was sitting behind. Neither of them seemed to notice that their hands were still entwined.

“That was absolutely perfect,” she said proudly. “Thank you very much. Please stop by my room tomorrow and see the results.”

They both nodded eagerly, and Zach felt the same anticipated excitement that he did after his first high school tryout. As they got up to descend from the stage, they realized that their hands were still connected and blushingly disconnected them. A bubbling laughter rose up from the crowd below and Zach did his best to play it off while Chris only reddened further.

Zach waved to Mel, now sitting with Ashley near Ms. Perry. She gave him a smug grin to which he rolled his eyes in return. He lead Chris from the auditorium and back into the hall.

“Oh my god! Zach!” Chris cheered as soon as the door was closed behind them. “That was great! That was so much better than I thought it was going to be!”

Zach grinned back and listened to Chris’s excitement. Before he even knew what was happening, Chris had encircled him a tight hug. For a moment, he was disoriented, but then he came to and returned Chris’s tight grip.

“That was. It was really good, even for a first time,” he responded as both retreated. “I told you that you’d be great.”

“Thanks, man,” he said humbly and thoughtfully. “And sorry about the hand holding thing. I don’t even know what happened with that.”

Chris looked down at his hands sheepishly, as if he was avoiding eye contact. Zach chuckled and punched him lightly on the shoulder.

“It’s no problem, really. Didn’t you say you had football practice to get to?”

“Shit, you just had to go and ruin my good mood, didn’t you?” he joked. “Yeah, my dad said he’d kick my ass if I skipped on any practice that I didn’t have to. I told him I was meeting up with a teacher after class, though, so I’m good for today. ‘Guess I better get going before it looks too suspicious, though. I’ll see ya later.”

“See ya later,” Zach replied with a touch of quiet melancholy in his tone.

Chris moved towards the hall connecting the field lot to the auditorium hall and Zach watched him go. Once again Chris was resigning himself to other people. Once again Zach had to watch him walk away, knowing that Chris wasn’t really happy to be doing what his father was putting him up to anymore.

As Zach turned to go to his own car he heard the screech of the heavy door, followed by it suddenly closing and Chris running back to say something.

“I-uh-Zach?” he said, scratching at the back of his neck.

“Yeah, Chris?”

“I just really wanted to say thanks again. Like, what you said back there-about how everyone is rooting for me, how you believe in me?-that really meant a lot. Just, thanks. I promise I’ll get a hold of you after practice. We should celebrate.”

“Sure. Yeah! Let’s. Is it ok if I bring people from class to meet you?”

“That would be awesome. Just tell me where whenever we talk tonight.”

Zach smiled happily. “Alright, I’ll figure it out. Talk to you later?”

“Talk to you later,” he finalized happily.

Zach laughed as he watched Chris walk out the door, more confident in his departure this time. This time everything felt so optimistic-so complete, and once again everything was going to be alright.


End file.
